Previewing the Survivor Series
It is a busy weekend for WWE as NXT presents WarGames tomorrow night and then the annual Survivor Series is Sunday night.
Both shows are on the WWE Network.
Brock Lesnar defends the WWE championship against Rey Mysterio in a No Holds Barred, No DQ match. The Fiend defends the Universal championship against Daniel Bryan in a rematch from the 2014 Royal Rumble in Pittsburgh in what was a stellar match.
There will be five matches pitting Raw vs. Smackdown vs. NXT, as well.
Also, Adam Cole defends the NXT title against a challenger to be determined Saturday night at WarGames.
A pair of WarGames matches headline the NXT show. Team Ciampa takes on The Undisputed Era, while the first-ever women鈥檚 WarGames match will also take place.
CM Punk back to WWE, sort of
CM Punk appeared for the second straight week on WWE Backstage Tuesday night and there is already hype about when he will return to the ring.
Punk stated Tuesday that he does not work for WWE, and he is right as Fox is signing his checks. Punk mentioned on the show that he has not spoken with anyone from WWE, but be sure in knowing it will happen.
For years, Punk would complain about part-time wrestlers like The Rock and Brock Lesnar being featured, while the guys like himself and Daniel Bryan were wrestling every night.
If, or when, Punk returns, it will be on a part-time contract and he will make a fortune for limited dates, much like The Rock and Lesnar have done for years.
WWE touts Mania numbers
WWE releases numbers from WrestleMania Week each year to show the economic value when the show comes to a town.
The numbers are usually staggering, and this past Mania at MetLife Stadium was no exception.
WWE and New Jersey governor Phil Murphy announced Monday that Mania 35 generated $165.4 million in economic impact for the New York/New Jersey region.
This was more than a 60 percent increase from the $101.2 million generated by Mania 29, which also took place in the area and generated $27.1 million in federal, state and local taxes.
It is the eighth consecutive Mania that has generated more than $100 million in economic growth for its host area.
Over the last 13 years, Mania has generated more than $1.3 billion in cumulative economic impact for the cities that have hosted the event.
Followup on last week鈥檚 column
I appreciate the amount of feedback I received about last week鈥檚 column.
While I did not have a direct link to share at the time, several people reached out with a link, including long time friends Kyle Ward and Gregg Pikulsky.
To see it, you can either go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH9NeuS_raA&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2AKcJAsPdNJL1T2FUXa78NGnq9T0Bk1maZ-FN93YE1gQq1Q8pTnpA5shA or go to Youtube.com and search WWF 鈥� 11.15.1999 鈥� Raw 鈥� The Acolytes 鈥� Backstage Fight 鈥� Full Segments.
On This Day 鈥�
In 1990, The Undertaker made his WWE debut at the Survivor Series.
Known at first as 鈥淐ain The Undertaker,鈥� he was managed that night by Brother Love.
This week鈥檚 question:
鈥淚 always like to look in the crystal ball at the Royal Rumble every November. Do you have a favorite to win both the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 Rumbles? I think this could be the year they let Braun Strowman win.鈥� Jeremy, Waynesburg.
Strowman is a strong choice! The hard thing to predict is if the winner will be from Raw, Smackdown or NXT. On the men鈥檚 side, something tells me that Roman Reigns will challenge Bray Wyatt for the Universal title at WrestleMania so I will go with Reigns although WWE would be smart to go in a different direction.
On the women鈥檚 side, I will pick Lacey Evans.